People Profiles

Table of Contents
Vicky Mayhall
Ione Wiedeman
Jill Powers
Eleanore Danner

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Her favorite buttons are picture buttons, but, she added, "I love my silly goofies just as much as a French enamel portrait."

One button she’d like to find is "Skating in Central Park," and with her luck, she’s going to find it.

"I stumbled into an antique shop and the dealer had just purchased an entire collection of buttons. I purchased each CARD for $10.00. She had enamels, picture buttons, goofies, military, studio jasperware, tons of glass and bakelite. Each card was a work card and some had 50 buttons on them. My next best buy was from a seamstress who was retiring, she sold me several boxes of buttons that she figured were junk for $20.00. Most were junk, but there was a set of what I thought were brass anchor designed buttons, but how they glittered. My first love was antique jewelry, so I got out my 10x loop, and lo and behold, a full set of 14k buttons was discovered!"

Vicky said her three kids like to sit with her and look through her buttons whenever she gets more. Her 12 year old daughter has even started her first collection.

Button Bytes Light Profiles: IONE WIEDEMAN (Onie) of Minot, North Dakota

Onie Wiedeman went to a flea market in 1990 to buy buttons to sew onto a t-shirt to snaz it up. She bought a $1.00 jar of buttons. "One thing led to another and I found myself looking for quarter-sized buttons of interest, to sew on "dress enhancers" - a crunchy cloth thingy with a button in the middle. In the course of looking, I found some very unusual buttons for 25 cents each at flea market in another state. There were over 100 buttons, I needed only a few, but could not choose which one, they were all so "neat". I asked the guy what he would take for the whole box. He said $15 and I bought it, after thinking for a few minutes and wondering if it was worth it."

Then, she asked another friend to find some on a trip to California, and when she bought them, she decided to do a little research. When the friend looked up buttons at the library, she found "The Big Book of Buttons," and checked it out. She brought that book to Onie, who stayed up all night reading it, and she was hooked. "We both immediately joined the National Button Society!"

"Incidentally, among the buttons in my $15 box was a molded composition, as pictured on page 446 in the BBB, #10, but mine has a border around it in a Greek key design! There were also some champleve enameled pansies, some goldstone set in metal with rhinestone trim, and many others."

She has also joined the Minnesota Button Society and later began to make button brooches, which she sold at a local specialty store. Now, a full time collector, she’s designed a pattern for "Button Buddies" which was printed in Woman's Day a few years ago.

"Mainly, I now collect buttons, go to National Shows, drool at buttons I will probably never see in my own collection, and buy those which I can afford."

Her favorites are the cameo carved pictorial pearl. "I have only a few, and they are not deluxe. I have to be content to just look at them. My favorite button to buy is hard to say - I like sailboats, roosters, roses, lily of the valley and thistles, and these are the topics I'm trying to collect in various sizes and materials. I also like the "French tights", and I've recently become very interested in studio buttons. I do love bakelite, the big, colorful realistics, but they've become too pricey for me," she said, but her "Must find" button is the dragonfly nymph pictured on page 110 in the BBB, #7. "It's the first button which caught my eye that night in 1990 when I stayed up getting hooked! I still can't get it out of my mind!"

Her best find is one of the famous stories. "I had bought a jarful of black glass buttons and had a lot of fun poking through them, though most were chipped. Later on, once I learned what a Tingue was, my memory told me that I had seen one in my boxes and jars of flea market finds. Lo and behold, there it was! And I was astounded to find that it had not broken, being in a jarful of glass, tumbled around, poked in, etc. There are a few chips on it, but that doesn't matter! I have it safely mounted on my tray of black glass, various construction and theme."

And although her husband doesn’t collect, he enjoys going to National button shows with her, "he loves the people and has made a couple of great friends."

Button Bytes Light Profiles: JILL POWERS of Gardiner, Maine

At a church fair, Jill Powers, then 12 years old, found a box of antique buttons in a storage closet. She bought them, and her collection, and passion, were born. "Some of my most beloved and valuable buttons were from that first purchase," she said.

Mother-of-pearl buttons are her favorites, but she’s looking for an unusual button. "I would love to own a button from the clothing of Tsar Martyr Nicholas, his family, or direct relations."

Button Bytes Light Profiles: ELEANORE DANNER of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin

A big fan of antiques, Eleanore Danner said she felt like there were too much antique furniture in her home. About 10 years ago, she found four pretty buttons. For the past ten years, she’s gotten rid of the furniture, but she’s been adding to the button collection. "I don’t know how much space I’ve saved," she said. She’s got thousands of buttons, and many are on framed cards on her walls, she said.

"When I get sick of looking, I stop for a while, and when I go back, I get involved all over again," she said. "If I had a favorite button it would be helpful," she said. "I find I love every new type I run into." Though she is looking for the oldest ones she can find. Also, she’s been trying to find "one of each type so I know what they look like."